Dipping my toes into the poster creation process and here is a sample of my first attempt. Created in PSE 10 using a basic "free" template with added touches. My PSE knowledge is basic but beginning to connect the dots i.e. layers, etc. (my vocation for +15yrs was mechanical drafting - board / pencil - then CAD) and been a while since my CAD days but find some of the same CAD concepts apply i.e. layers. I lean towards a simple, clean and basic look with a touch of "punch" as appropriate. Lots to learn and the various threads on posters are great learning tools.

Pretty respectable first try, Wendell- I'll jump in and mention a couple of things before you get more feedback from others.

- Though some people might think it's a little over the top, I think the background's cool, and works well with your lighting on the player (which btw is a solid main image). You might see how it looks to scale him up more, to make it more about him than the background. Might add a little more in-your-face quality to it, too. Also, don't be afraid to overlap the main image onto the surrounding elements a bit (like the helmet onto the bottom edge of the upper text)- it helps create depth.

- Looking at the bottom edge of the main image cutout, I get a feeling it could be improved, like adding the rest of his shoes and spreading out a little grass to each side. You could drop the grass right down on that white line, too.

- I'd maybe put a sharpen on the lightning if it's on a separate layer, since it has a slight blur to it that gives the impression that it's been scaled up from a lower resolution. Obviously a nit, tho.

- Colors are nice and consistent, which is normally one of the common stumbling blocks in posters on the forum.

- The only real obvious negative is that you've got 3 different typefaces going on, none of which work well together. Just generally speaking here, but it's a good idea to use no more than two that play well, and mess with their attributes if a little variety is desired.

I really like the design of this. The image, background and colors look great. I would suggest making the font on the "Blacksburg Bruins" larger / taller to make it stand out a bit more. Nice job with setting the grass area on the line to tie it in. Where did you find this template? Nice job.

Wendell - I really like your concept here and your update is a big improvement. There are two things I would like to see you try. Extend the grass just a bit past the player. Not a lot. And instead of the top and extreme bottom corners fading to back, how about the dark indigo that you already have at the edge of your lightning background. Perhaps that is part of the template and not possible to change?

I too would like to try that template for my high school. Where did you get it?

Wendell - I like your logo - very classy. I am wondering though - if you did this poster to give to the player would you leave that text across the middle?

I was thinking that you could move your logo to the very top of the poster above the "Football", and then insert "Presents" in a separate line between your logo and Football in the style of a movie poster. I'm thinking that if you were actually going to produce this for a customer it would look pretty cool.

One thing to contemplate while you are in "design mode" is what would you do if the player has a much longer name like "Zachary Zimmermann"? Working it out now might be easier than later? Would you simply use two lines of text at the bottom and drop size of number an year keeping name as large as possible without changing the template's bottom black area?

One thing to contemplate while you are in "design mode" is what would you do if the player has a much longer name like "Zachary Zimmermann"? Working it out now might be easier than later? Would you simply use two lines of text at the bottom and drop size of number an year keeping name as large as possible without changing the template's bottom black area?

Guy

Hit that on the head, Guy- I'd been thinking the same thing when I was doing the changes I posted above. Some redesigning of the whole name box area for the sake of versatility would be a wise move.

David, we all have the skills, it just takes a while to pull them out, lol.

My time as of late has been limited due to some personal changes in my life, but I feel like I want to chime in on this one, on two matters... One personal opinion, one technical...

Personal opinion... "FOOTBALL" just doesn't fit for me. It's taking up way too much real estate and I'm not crazy about the font mismatch.

Technical... Make sure the yellow font stroke matches the jersey color. The jersey color is leaning more towards gold, while your font stroke is more of a vibrant yellow leaning towards the greens in the spectrum. If you are familiar with color hex codes, try: #ffcc00

Paul - I downloaded and have been playing with this same free poster template since Wendell was so kind as to provide the link. The first problem I had with it was my "test" player's name was Michael Bankhead - not a particularly long name but it reduced the font size considerably. That font has a LOT of spacing built in between the letters which quickly presents problems.

The second problem is that the "Football" text layer isn't. A text layer, that is. It is an image layer and so there are limits on what you can do with it.

I think Wendell has done a great job adding to the very limiting free template and made a really nice poster. Not to hijack this thread but my attempt with it is below, and it is obvious I have a very limited skill set and don't have the right clouds and lighting shots to layer into it. I have a lot more learning to do.

Just goes to show how good Wendell's is compared to a real PS Nimrod like me.